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Gray wolf · A Holarctic pack hunter whose 1995 Yellowstone return and older Leopold ethics still structure predator politics.

At a glance
Score intensity

Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.

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Quick answers

Did wolves recover everywhere?

Global LC hides Mexican wolves, some European growing pains, and US delisting fights. Resilience here is mid-high because many Holarctic populations rebounded -- not because conflict ended.

What happened in Yellowstone in 1995?

Fourteen wolves from Canada were released (more in 1996). Elk behaviour and riparian vegetation became a long argument, not a cartoon instant forest.

Is the trophic cascade settled?

Early popular accounts over-simplified. Later work kept wolves important and added drought, human hunting, and beaver. The cascade is a research programme, not a poster.

Who was Aldo Leopold here?

A forester who had killed wolves and later wrote the mountain-as-ethics essay (1949). The US environmental canon still starts many wolf talks there.

What is Isle Royale?

A closed wolf-moose system studied since 1958. Inbreeding and later genetic rescue (2018-) made it a lab of isolation.

Are wolves more intelligent than big cats in this atlas?

Pack coordination and canine social cognition sit high. Gorillas and elephants still outrank them. Scores are relative, not IQ certificates.

IUCN: Least Concern (global)

Start with this section - Range & people

Money around the gray wolf is regional even when the brand is global.

Figures are dated educational bands -- not live quotes and not a buying guide.

Encounter bands

Viewing / tourism (2010s band)

Ticketed

Safari, hide, cage-dive or parade tickets in the 2010s often sat in the tens to hundreds of USD per person -- a dated band, not a live quote.

Conflict / livestock loss

Local & episodic

Predation and crop-raid compensation schemes (US, Kenya, India) published per-head bands that changed with election cycles.

Fishery / take value

Commodity

Where the type is a catch (tuna, salmon, fugu), 2000s-2020s ex-vessel or auction bands were the political number -- not a supermarket tag.

Captive / zoo husbandry

Institutional

Annual keep for a large mammal or a specialist bird in AZA/EAZA reports ran to five or six figures USD in the 2010s.

Enforcement / reserve ops

Public

Ranger, observer and census costs are socialised; they do not appear on a viewing ticket.

Regions

North America

ESA listings, Parks Canada, Alaska runs and Churchill buggies are the English-language field the localLens keeps returning to.

United Kingdom and Ireland

RSPB, NatureScot, reintroductions and a dense NGO press shape how this atlas type is taught in British English.

European Union / wider Europe

Habitats Directive, IWC delegations and returning wolves sit beside UK practice without being identical.

Range-state core

The biological centre of the gray wolf -- often not English-speaking -- still writes the Red List.

Australia and New Zealand

DOC, Phillip Island, Taiaroa Head and kakapo-style ICU projects are the southern English conservation dialect.

Global trade desks

CITES, ICCAT, IWC and auction houses price the animal whether or not a local language has a word for it.

Key range numbers

66Atlas speed
62Atlas resilience
85Atlas cultural impact
94Atlas ecological role

Field programmes

NPS Yellowstone

Reintroduction and winter study.

US FWS

ESA listing/delisting machine.

International Wolf Center

Ely education and ambassadors.

Isle Royale / Michigan Tech

Wolf-moose project.

Mexican Wolf Interagency

Captive-bred Southwest releases.

EU LIFE wolf projects

Pack maps and compensation.

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